If I had chosen love
by valenelle
Summary: Always when passing Port Royal, Jack makes a stop for a very special reason. One-Shot.


**A/N: This is a little something I wrote a couple of months ago. I was supposed to update A Spanish Lullaby but instead I got stuck on Maddz2's story, so that is pretty much where my fanficton-time has been. **

**Summary: Always when passing Port Royal, Jack makes a stop for a very special reason. One-Shot.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything associated to the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. **

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**If I had chosen love**

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It happened every time the route was passing Port Royal. The Black Pearl would anchor in a nearby bay and be watched by a bribed guard. The crew would stay aboard and drink as if there was no tomorrow, as it was not appreciated under the captain's eye. But he was not around.

Because like always when stopping in Port Royal, he would take his time to promenade upwards to the mansion. When he rounded a corner and faced a tavern, he always grinned.

"Jack! Not again!" Angelica would exclaim when Jack shoved her out of the tavern.

He would grin and shrug. "Will never pay for rum, love."

She would roll her eyes and they would have to run all the way to the harbor. Quickly they would row the long boat to The Black Pearl as the tavern's owner were on their heels, yelling his head off.

But that was that, a long time ago.

He kept walking past buildings, some which stores he had robbed sneakily.

Eventually he came out from the noisy and filthy town buildings to a gravel path. He followed it like he had done so many times before.

Angelica had been walking slightly in front of him. Excitedly she had every now and then nagged for him to hurry as he was not catching up to her pace.

"Angelica, what now?" he had complained, partly tired from walking up the hill.

Then she had abruptly stopped and almost caused him to knock her over. She snorted and grabbed his arm to pull him beside her.

"Look," Angelica said. Jack checked out the view ahead of him. It was a fence, but they were standing in the open gate. It was a big mansion, a white one made of tree. It was no doubt expensive by the size, and the garden with perfectly cut bushes revealed there was a well-working staff as well.

"I want a house like that someday," she let out, completely amazed by what the two of them had in front of them.

He swallowed and shook his head. "Ye would not prefer living on a bigger vessel?"

Angelica frowned and looked at him. "I want to live in that particular house, no other house."

When he did not seem convinced, she would pull him closer to her by grabbing his shirt. "Please, Jack. Buy this house for us. You are ruling the wind and tides now, it is time to settle down, right?"

For a moment, he would hesitate and examine it over her head. It had been a sunny day and it was moonlight in the dark night.

That was years ago.

Now it was raining and cloudy. A dull feeling to it all. And he was standing in the fence's opening. The garden looked pretty much the same, except for some new rose bushes being planted - and wooden toys a bit everywhere on the lawn. He walked over to a porcelain doll which seemed muddy from the raining. He bent down and picked it up, brushed it against his sleeve to clean it.

Yes, nowadays the house was filled with children. Not that many. Three children. Three wonderful children that constantly played outside in the garden. Two elder sons and a younger daughter.

He moved towards the front door where no rain reached. Slowly he removed the hat which represented his captain position. The leather hat was soaking wet and therefore he tucked it under his arm. He dug in his pocket and felt past his compass and pistol to finally reach a metallic item. He pulled it out and put it into the locker to push it to the right and left until the locked clicked open.

He hung his dropping hat on the hatrack and carefully put the porcelain doll on a table in the entrance room. He knew how much the beloved doll meant to the little girl.

He did not bother though to take off his coat. It stayed on as he slowly made his way to the stair. One could think it was made of wooden tree, but not in this house. It was marble all along, and decorated with pictures framed by mahogany.

As if he did this every night, he moved to the master bedroom. The queen sized bed was situated further away in this big room, and a big window that reached high up to the overly high ceiling caused the room to lighten up a lot during the days. Big curtains was usually covering it, but now due the weather, they had no use. Instead they were tied to the sides of this grandiose window.

He took a chair that was placed in the bedroom's corner, often with Angelica's silk robe thrown on it, and placed it beside the bed. Carefully he sat down while never tearing his eyes from the Spanish woman laying in the bed. She had her face towards him and slept peacefully.

An arm from hers was hugging the cover close to her, and her face was partly buried in the soft pillow. Her chin was covered by the cover she hugged to her body.

The long familiar brown hair was in loose curls resting all over her body and pillow. During the days it would be in a finer updo as she would host tea parties with the other ladies. Sometimes she invited friends from other islands as she wanted to give the children the best future possible. With that said, they would need contacts.

It was perhaps not what she had believed she would receive, but a dream she firmly had been strictly determined to follow.

She truly was a beauty, inside and out as she slept there. His eyes got fixated on the wedding ring that was put on the nightstand. During days Angelica would carry it with pride, and at evening very carefully place it on the bedside table. Usually during moonlight it shimmered and glistened, particularly the diamonds. But now it was such a dull weather the jewel almost appeared black.

He must have been sitting on that chair for hours as he examined her.

Angelica was the most perfect wife. He knew that. He loved her so very much it ached. It pained him. And the daughter was the most perfect girl. The two sons were the most perfect two sons.

Slowly at last as it was sunrise, he stood up and kissed Angelica's cheek tenderly. When he stood up he looked at the man laying beside her in bed. And that man was the most perfect husband.

After an inhale that could have been interpreted as either dramatic or sad, he put the chair back where it belonged.

Before leaving, he looked over his shoulder to again memorize the picture of what should and could have been his.

Carefully not to let anybody notice his presence, he left the same way as he arrived.

It was in fact not the removing of the silk robe that had alerted Angelica of his arrival. It was the energy in the room that shifted, the knowledge of being watched by him. Even if it had been an utter silence, she had heard very clearly how he had closed the door as he left. Her eyes opened and for a brief moment she wondered if it was a dream. Was her new life since a couple of years aback a dream, or was he?

"Jack," she mouthed. She moved her feet over the edge of the bed and walked to the window - only to watch Captain Jack Sparrow leave, as she always did when he anonymously visited her.

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**A/N: Do you hate me now? This is obviously not the happiest ending, and hopefully Jack will have a wake-up call or this is how his and Angelica's life will end up - possibly. **

**What did you think of this One-Shot? **


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